ADJUSTERS
AND CONTRACTORS SENTENCED TO PROBATION, ORDERED TO MAKE $248,000 IN FORFEITURES
FOR KICKBACKS

Four insurance adjusters and three contractors
were ordered to make forfeitures totaling $248,000 on Dec. 2 after pleading guilty
to kickbacks made possible by inflating insurance claims on properties in Manhattan,
Brooklyn and Staten Island. Two other men are still to be sentenced.

Appearing
in New York State Supreme Court, the adjusters admitted accepting cash payments,
as well as gifts and other gratuities, from the contractors in return for approving
inflated repair estimates submitted by the contractors.

Investigators
said the contractors inflated the cost of repairs so they could keep a portion
of the proceeds themselves and give part of the money to adjusters. In some cases,
adjusters accepted such things as golf outings, golf equipment or dinners.

The
adjusters would then approve the inflated estimates as reasonable and pass them
onto for payment to Chubb & Son, a division of Federal Insurance Company. Three
of the four adjusters implicated were employed by Chubb. Investigators said the
kickbacks were sometimes initiated by the contractors and, at other times, initiated
by the adjusters.

The kickbacks - which are believed to
have totaled an estimated $1 million -- involved claims on approximately 10 properties.
In addition to the court-ordered forfeitures, contractors have already returned
$600,000 to Chubb.

The three Chubb adjusters, who pleaded
guilty to felony criminal bribe receiving and insurance fraud, were each sentenced
to five years' probation, in addition to the following forfeitures: Stephen Curtis,
51, of 48 Lyle Ct., Staten Island; $70,000; James Cassino, 31, of 2357 E. 70th
St., Brooklyn, $60,000; and John Occhiogrosso, 51, of 2310 Ocean Pkwy., Brooklyn,
$13,000.

The fourth adjuster, Joseph Fonte, 45, of 341
Brighton St., Staten Island, is a public adjuster with no affiliation to Chubb.
He was granted a one-year conditional discharge and ordered to make a $5,000 forfeiture
after pleading guilty to two counts of commercial bribery.

The
contractors sentenced, and the forfeitures they were ordered to make, are Arie
Malina, 57, of 27 Valley Green Dr., Valley Stream, NY, $75,000 and five years'
probation for pleading guilty to insurance fraud and commercial bribing; Fabio
Scala, 34, of 33 Gold St., New York, $25,000, for pleading guilty to insurance
fraud and commercial bribery; and Sergio Almada, 37, of 22 Orange Rd., Montclair,
NJ, conditional discharge, for pleading guilty to falsifying business records.

A fifth adjustor, John Brady, 45, of 50-27 59th Place,
Woodside in Queens, is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 13. He pleaded guilty to
commercial bribe receiving. The sentencing of Joseph Trovato, 50, a contractor,
of 16234 91St., Howard Beach, Queens, was adjourned until Feb. 3. He pleaded guilty
to insurance fraud and commercial bribery.

The nine men
were arrested after an investigation begun when Chubb noticed irregularities in
claims involving the adjusters and contractors. At the same time, the company
had been contacted by another contractor who was not implicated in the schemes.
That contractor complained that he had been approached by Curtis who wanted "10
points," or $3,750, as a kickback for a $37,500 repair project he was working
on at a Park Avenue condominium.

Chubb asked the New York
State Insurance Department and the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau to look into the case after its own investigation that included re-inspecting
the properties tied to the claims.

Four of the adjusters,
Curtis, Occhiogrosso, Cassino and Brady, were hired by Chubb after they had been
employed previously by another insurance company. Curtis resigned from Chubb when
the investigation began. The other three Chubb adjusters were fired. Fonte was
a public adjuster, hired by individual consumers filing insurance claims with
Chubb.

The adjusters are all licensed by the Insurance
Department. Their licenses are subject to revocation as a result of the criminal
convictions.